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U.S. ‘alarmed’ by Assad’s firing of Iranian-made precision missiles

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U.S. ‘alarmed’ by Assad’s firing of Iranian-made precision missiles

The United States is becoming increasingly worried about Syria’s ballistic missiles supplied by Iran to the regime of President Assad, according to U.S. media reports.

The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying that the Syrian regime recently fired four short-range Iranian-made ballistic missiles at sites of opposition fighters, raising concern that the embattled Assad maybe turning into more dangerous weapons.

“It certainly shows more aggressive action by the Syrian regime, aided by the Iranians,” a senior U.S. official told the WSJ.

The missiles are known as the fatah-110 and are more precise than the Scud rockets currently used by the Assad’s regime. “It could be a sign of new tactics or desperation,” the official added.

He said U.S. intelligence agencies are evaluating the new missiles in terms of their precision and their scope of destruction.

In December, first reports emerged of Assad’s forces using scud missiles against the opposition fighter in what observers say was a sign of desperation in the face of an increasingly emboldened opposition force.

“I can confirm that we have detected the launch of Scud-type missiles. We strongly regret that act,” NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, calling the launches “acts of a desperate regime approaching collapse.”

A NATO official told Reuters that there had been multiple launches of Scud-type missiles inside Syria on Thursday morning.

Rasmussen used the Scud launches to justify NATO’s decision to dispatch Patriot anti-missile systems to NATO ally Turkey – a deployment criticized by Syria, Iran and Russia.

Source: Alarabiya

Solitary Confinement Cause of Soltani’s Illnesses, Says Daughter

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Solitary Confinement Cause of Soltani’s Illnesses, Says Daughter

In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the daughter of Abdolfattah Soltani said that her father was hospitalized two weeks ago, following a deterioration in his health. Maedeh Soltani told the Campaign that the Iranian judicial authorities finally agreed to her father’s medical treatment outside the prison after months of requests for his transfer.

“Over the past six months, my mother kept submitting requests for my father’s transfer. My father has various ailments. He suffers from ulcers, anemia, and digestive track problems. My mother says that different specialists have been testing him and he is still in the stages of diagnosis,” Maedeh Soltani told the Campaign.

Abdolfattah Soltani, a prominent human rights lawyer, was arrested on September 10, 2011. On January 8, 2012, Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Pirabbasi sentenced him to 18 years in prison, exile to Borazjan, and 20 years’ ban on his legal practice on charges of “being awarded the [2009] Nuremberg International Human Rights Award,” “interviewing with media about his clients’ cases,” and “co-founding the Center for Human Rights Defenders.”

“Most of my father’s illnesses are the result of the conditions of Ward 209 and solitary cells inside Evin Prison; they are the result of psychological pressure and whatever solitary confinement does to an individual. My father suffered different illnesses during that time and later, and because he received no treatment for them in the General Ward, his conditions worsened. My mother said that once she even saw my father limping during one of her visits with my father, but he never said a word about what had happened to him and the reason for the limp,” Soltani added.

“The doctors said that they can’t tell what my father’s problem is yet, but they have emphasized that he will need to be kept away in a stress-free environment with proper nutrition,” Abdolfattah Soltani’s daughter told the Campaign.

Maedeh Soltani told the Campaign that on three separate occasions in recent months, Abdolfattah Soltani refused to be transferred to the hospital in handcuffs. “My father is in the hospital without handcuffs now. The security forces knew that if they tried to transfer him in handcuffs again, that he would refuse to go. They also allowed my mother to be near him in the hospital, but they did not grant permission for other relatives, friends, and acquaintances,” she said.

Maedeh Soltani expressed hope that judicial authorities would agree with her father’s medical furlough.

Along with other prominent Iranian human rights lawyers Shirin Ebadi, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, and Mohammad Sharif, Abdolafattah Soltani established the Defenders of Human Rights Center in 2001. He has represented many political and civil activists such as Akbar Ganji, Zahra Kazemi’s family, Zahra Baniyaghoub’s family, and Haleh Esfandiari, as well as several National-Religious activists and members of the Tehran Bus Drivers Union. Presently, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, another member of the DHRC, is in prison; Shirin Ebadi was forced into exile; and the organization’s spokesperson Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to six years in prison, but was released into her family’s custody after she developed complete muscular paralysis in prison.

Source: Iran Human Rights

Concern for life of Kurdish political prisoner Behrooz Alkhani

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Concern for life of Kurdish political prisoner Behrooz Alkhani

After the appellate court ratified the death sentence handed down against him, there is concern for his life. Behrooz was arrested three years ago along with 15 other people on charges of conspiring with PEJAK. He was later charged with involvement in the assassination of the prosecutor general of the city of Khoy and sentenced to death. According to his brother, Behrooz was severely tortured during his arrest and interrogation. His interrogators bored a hole in his foot with an electric drill and broke his fingers. They connected an electric shocker to his head and beat his head with a cable. Behrooz has denied any involvement in the assassination of the prosecutor general.

Source: Iran Daily Brief

Ahmad Shoujai held for over 150 days in security wing of Evin Prison

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Ahmad Shoujai held for over 150 days in security wing of Evin Prison

Political prisoner supporter of the Green Movement held for over 150 days in security wing of Evin Prison although his interrogation has been completed.

Political prisoner and Green Movement supporter Ahmad Shujai, who was involved in the disclosure of the recording that documented the torture of the wife of Saeed Emami (who was charged in the political chain murders and according to official pronouncements committed suicide in prison) has been held for over 150 days in Security Wing 209 in Evin Prison, although his interrogation has been completed. Shujai was one of the students of the late Ayatollah Montazeri and even worked for a time in the Ministry of Intelligence.

Source: Iran Daily Brief

Iran Test-Fires Missile System Near Strait Of Hormuz

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Iran Test-Fires Missile System Near Strait Of Hormuz

Iranian state media say the country has successfully test-fired a newly upgraded missile system near the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic passageway in the Persian Gulf.

Iranian officials say the Iranian-made air-defense system known as Raad, or Thunder, has the capability to fire missiles with a range of 50 kilometers, hitting targets at 22,000 meters.

Admiral Amir Rastgari, a navy spokesman, said underwater and surface-to-surface rockets were also successfully tested. The five-day drill, held annually in Iran, will end on January 2.

Iranian officials have threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil exports, in case of an attack on Iran.

Tehran has recently increased military exercises as international tensions grow over its disputed nuclear program.

Source: RFERL

Ahmadinejad in suicidal anti-corruption drive against Khamenei’s establishment

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Ahmadinejad in suicidal anti-corruption drive against Khamenei’s establishment

In the unexpected role of social crusader, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech at Kermanshah Wednesday, Jan. 2, “The country’s economy should not be controlled by 3,000 or 10,000 people.” Seventy-six million Iranians still don’t benefit from the country’s oil revenues – “only an elite minority,” he said.

Predictably, DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report, the Iranian president’s relations and friends are rushing for the exits: they are selling property and packing their bags ready to quit the country, worried about his fate and their own, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his powerful machine prepared to hit back.
Ahmadinejad is certainly in for serious persecution even before his six months as president are up in June. In his second four-year term as president, he made enemies of the most powerful parts of the ruling establishment: He attempted to overshadow the Supreme Leader, brushed aside the advice of his mentor, the influential religious figure Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, and dared to poke a finger in the eye of the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, by asking why they controlled and profited from the largest slice of the nation’s assets instead of the people.
Now they are all gunning for him, using as their political bludgeon allegations of financial corruption.
But Ahmadinejad has not been put off. Although he sees his undoing written large on the wall, at every opportunity, before even small audiences of 300-400 people, he continues to maintain that the only way the country can save itself is by forcing the redistribution of national wealth.
His message goes down well in the Iranian street and he is beginning to build a grass-roots power base that may help protect him from retribution by Khamenei and his henchmen. The “elite minority,” which need to be relieved of their assets, was easily understood to impugn the super-rich, like Khamenei’s own son Mojtaba and some of the Revolutionary Guard commanders.
Our sources in Tehran say that many of his associates have already taken the precaution of removing themselves to safety in the United States or Europe; others are keeping their heads down or knocking on the president’s door to wangle foreign postings so long as he has the clout to disburse them. One such prominent figure is Hamid Baqa’I, the president’s deputy for executive affairs. In two months, he is due to take up the post of Iranian ambassador to UN institutions in Geneva and New York, in place of the incumbent Mohammad Khaza’i.
Ahmadinejad is going through the motions of promoting his close aide Esfandyar Rahim Masha’I, who is also the father of his daughter-in-law, as presidential contender in June. But he knows it is a lost case.  Masha’i is also likely to end up at a foreign posting with his family, when his candidacy is disqualified by the Guardian Council of the Constitution which is under Khamenei’s thumb.

Foreign appointments also appear to be in the works for some other members of Ahmadinejad’s inner circle, such as Seyyed Hossein Moussavi, Malek-Zadeh and others.

But not all his hangers-on are getting a sympathetic hearing. Our sources in Tehran have learned that the president lost patience this week when a bunch of his cronies confronted him with demands for cushy overseas appointments. He threatened instead to fire some of them  Under heavy criticism for mismanaging the Iranian economy, he may use the opportunity to assign the blame to his less favorite advisers, sweep them out and replace them with new faces. One of the most prominent heads on the block may be First Vice President and de facto prime minister Mohammad Reza Rahimi.

Rahimi stirred an international furor by his anti-Semitic remarks which accused Jews of “spreading narcotics around the world in accordance with the teachings of the Talmud … whose objective is the destruction of the world.”  He almost outperformed his boss, now turned social crusader, who more than once attracted international condemnation for his inflammatory remarks about Israel and Jews.
Most recently, Ahmadinejad called his close cronies together for a pep talk. He told them he held an insurance policy for his and their survival: the secret dossiers of 300 top Iranian officials containing detailed records of their misdeeds. He obtained them by rifling the archives of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security during the brief period after he sacked the intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, and before Khamenei forced him to reinstate the minister a week later.
He and his staff had meanwhile combed through the incriminating files and made copies of them which were now held safe in the presidential office.
Khamenei, who has the support of the bulk of Iran’s political and military leaders, knows all about Ahmadinejad’s plans and is determined to eliminate him one way or another and make sure that the 300 dossiers never leave the president’s office.
More than once, Ahmadinejad has implied recently that he would make their contents public if he or members of his clique were charged with corruption or the misappropriation of state funds. For now, he is weeding out of his administration the officials he regards as its Achilles heels – according to our sources, the first scheduled to go are Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi and Interior Minister Mohammad Mostafa Najjar.
The Iranian Oil Ministry is a notorious hotbed of financial embezzlement, whereas the Interior Ministry is responsible for organizing the upcoming presidential election and Ahmadinejad would prefer one of his confidantes to be sitting in that office.
Only last week, he sacked Health Minister Marzieh Wahid Dastjerdi for remarking that Ahmadinejad prefers to earmark foreign currency for importing dog food rather than medicines. Her dismissal put many backs up against the president in the top echelons of government.
President Ahmadinejad was publicly warned this week to shut his mouth and stop ruining his reputation by Esma’il Kovsari, Khamenist adherent and powerful parliamentary voice. Kovsari pointed out that the Revolutionary Guards helped Ahmadinejad come to power as president and supported him on many occasions and so he must not turn his back on them now.
Another supporter of Khamenei, Al Sa’idi, said that most regime heads are now sorry they brought Ahmadinejad to power because he has become a different person.

Does this royal battle within the Iranian establishment affect its nuclear plans? The answer is no. Will crucifying the president cause rioting over the summer election? Not likely. Politically, Ahmadinejad is on his way out and leaves the stage to the most radical elements of the regime. And physically?  Well, car accidents are a common feature of the Iranian political scene.

Source: DEBKA

Fateh missiles and Russian-Iranian military cooperation to bolster Assad

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Fateh missiles and Russian-Iranian military cooperation to bolster Assad

French and Israeli intelligence sources affirmed Saturday, Dec. 29,  that, contrary to reports appearing in the United States Friday, Iran has accelerated rather than slowed down its 20-percent grade enrichment of uranium and is racing toward a nuclear weapons capacity. Furthermore, for the moment, there is not the slightest indication that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has any intention of accepting the Obama administration’s latest plan for a nuclear deal.

As DEBKAfile has revealed, this plan would require Iran to discontinue production of 20-percent enriched uranium (which can be quickly converted to weapons grade material), and confine itself to producing low 5 percent uranium in agreed amounts. Tehran would also have to accept the removal from the country of its entire stock of 20-percent refined uranium.
The same sources point to the first appearance this week of Iran-made Fateh A-110 high-precision, short-range missiles in the use of the Syrian army against rebel fighters, under the guidance of Iranian officers and instructors, as underscoring the inter-dependence Tehran draws between the Syrian and nuclear issues.

Khamenei now links an acceptable solution for the Syrian dilemma to his possible nuclear flexibility.

DEBKAfile: When Iranians talks about an inter-power solution for ending the Syrian war, they mean a deal between Washington, Moscow and Tehran on both issues.
The Fateh missiles are being fired quite openly by Iranian military personnel in command of Syrian missile units as Tehran’s answer for the deployment of US, German and Dutch NATO Patriots on the Turkish side of the Syrian border.  They also carry a message in response to Israel’s threat of offensive action against Syria if it becomes necessary to thwart its use of chemical weapons. According to our French and military sources, Tehran is using the Fateh missiles and the Iranian military presence in Syria to warn that there is no bar to their use against Turkey, Jordan and Israel as well, in the event of a US or Israel attack on Syria’s chemical stores.
On no account, will Iran permit the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus.  At most, Tehran conceives of his departure in stages and handover to an emergency government led by the military or an armed forces faction to which certain opposition elements may be co-opted. Elections, in the Iranian view, must be deferred until hostilities end and the security situation is stable.

American and French sources agree that Tehran and Moscow have attained full coordination in their strategies for Syria and also on Iran’s nuclear program. They note that it was not by chance that the Russian Navy Wednesday, Dec. 26, launched its largest sea maneuver everin the Mediterranean and the approaches to the Persian Gulf, just two days before Iranian warships, submarines and aircraft embarked on their week-long Velayat 91 sea exercise in the Straits of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, and northern parts of the Indian Ocean.

The command centers of the Russian and Iranian war games are under orders from Moscow and Tehran to jointly exhibit  naval muscle in order to bolster the Assad regime against collapse.

Parallel to the influx of Fateh missiles from Iran to Syria, Moscow is rapidly expanding the deployment of its highly-sophisticated S-400 air and missile interceptors in Russia’s southern military region near the Turkish border.

Source: DEBKA

IRGC Concerned About 2013 Elections

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IRGC Concerned About 2013 Elections

Commanders Continue to Talk of “Seditionists”

Last week, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander declared that the protests and demonstrations against the officially-announced results of the 2009 presidential elections that took place that very year were more “dangerous than the 8-year [Iran-Iraq] war” and added that the Guards were preparing themselves for “days of scheming and interference by the enemy in the [2013 presidential] elections.”

Speaking to Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and Basij militia commanders at a seminar on Jihad and Basij leaders, the commander of the Guards supreme commander Mohammad Ali Jaafari once again labeled people who took to the streets in 2009 to protest the official results of the presidential election of that year as “seditionists” and called that confrontation between the opponents and proponents of the event a “war.”

“That test and its aftermath was a huge divine test for the Muslim people of Iran and the threat was much larger than that of the eight-year war for the revolution and Islam,” he said. Referring to the violent measures that security forces took to confront the protestors and demonstrators he said, “This test and event was, like the imposed war, a turning point for the revolution. People around the world who were concerned about the fate of the Islamic revolution learned from the resistance, wisdom and thoughtfulness of the Iranian people in their confrontation with the domestic and foreign enemies.”

He said the clashes of 2009 were between “revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries,” and claimed that the other uprisings in the region against their own governments started after the crushing of the protests by the Islamic republic which demonstrates the impact of the Islamic revolution.

He also echoed what other Iranian leaders have been saying in that real freedom exists in the country. “Some seditionists are trying to exonerate themselves with the public but I doubt that this will succeed in the near future.”

Another military commander, Iran’s minister of defense Ahmad Vahidi, also spoke about the 2009 crisis and said that, “The world will face tumultuous days ahead as the battle between good and evil still continues at all battlefronts.”

A day before the remarks by these two senior military men, Jaafari’s deputy Guards general Hamid Aslani also spoke of the upcoming presidential elections in 2013 and said, “In view of the enmity that exists against the Islamic republic the possibility of a threat against it exists at all times. The enemy most certainly does not want us to implement free and enthusiastic elections next year and intends to interfere and plot, but we are preparing ourselves for that.”

He made these remarks at a seminar titled “Basij’s Individual/Personal Defense Teams” (Goruhaye Defae Shakhsi Basij) where he announced that the Guards had prepared plans for such an eventuality. “Anyone who does not have a contingency plan will be the victim of those who do. Still, we do not have any specific issues,” he further said.

In his talk, Aslani also said that in the 2009 clashes between Basij militiamen and demonstrators, Basijis had been hurt because of their lack of personal defense (martial arts) skills. “At that moment I made a commitment to myself to pay attention to martial arts among Basiji militiamen,” he continued. “Basij efforts in the field of personal defense are a response to conditions that may again emerge in future and the “Demonstration of Authority” is aimed at confronting and preventing the possibility of such bitter events.”

In the meantime, former Basij commander and a member of the political bureau of the IRGC  who currently heads the Guards’ Imam Hossein University said that the, “United States had created 8 special offices for  overthrowing the Islamic republic through contacting elite inside the country and in some regional countries who would step in at the right moment.”

He said that the current strategy of the “enemy” was to “Increase pressure and change the military balance of the Islamic republic.

Source: Inside of Iran

Youcef Nadarkhani, Iranian Pastor, Reportedly Detained on Christmas Day

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Youcef Nadarkhani, Iranian Pastor, Reportedly Detained on Christmas Day

Youcef Nadarkhani, a pastor who was sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of apostasy and spent more than three years in prison, has been allegedly detained on Christmas Day in his home city of Rasht.

The former prisoner of conscience whose case garnered international attention throughout 2012 was released from Lakan Prison on September 8, 2012, after spending over three years in jail.

Today, Iranian media sources indicate that the pastor has been summoned to Rasht to complete the 45 remaining days of his 3-year prison sentence. Nadarkhani had originally been told that the remainder of his sentence would be served on probation.

Youcef Nadarkhani, 35, is married and has two young children. His September release was marked with a celebration by friends and family, as the pastor was acquitted of charges of apostasy that once led to his death sentence. A Twitter campaign initiated by theAmerican Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) reached 3 million followers just before Nadarkhani’s release, and Jordan Sekulow, Executive Director for ACLJ said that Pastor Youcef’s story “is an example of how the world can join together to ensure that justice is served and freedom preserved.”

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) spoke out on Nadarkhani’s detainment on Dec. 25, stating, “We are disappointed to hear Pastor Nadarkhani has been returned to prison in such an irregular manner. The timing is insensitive and especially sad for his wife and sons, who must have been looking forward to celebrating Christmas with him for the first time in three years.”

Pastor Nadarkhani has been sent to jail on orders of the director of Lakan Prison, according to CSW’s sources. The prison director says that Nadarkhani was originally released several days too early due to the persistence of his lawyer, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah.

“We hope that Pastor Nadarkhani will be released without delay once this alleged sentence has been fully served,” Thomas says. “We are also asking for prayers for the pastor’s safety, and for his family at this difficult time.”

In a letter released in May of 2012, Nadarkhani thanked supporters for raising awareness of his case.

“From time to time I am informed about the news which is spreading in the media about my current situation,” he wrote, “for instance being supported by various churches and famous politicians who have asked for my release, or campaigns and human rights activities which are going on against the charges which are applied to me.”

He said that he believed “that these kind[s] of activities can be very helpful in order to reach freedom, and respecting the human rights in a right way can bring forth great results in this,” adding, “I want to appreciate all those are trying to reach to this goal.”

Jason DeMars of Present Truth Ministries has remained closely connected to Nadarkhani’s case since the beginning. In the wake of the pastor’s release, DeMars asked supporters to remember that Nadarkhani might not be out of danger yet – citing cases of other Iranian pastors who were killed after being released.

“Please don’t forget what happened to Pastor Mehdi Dibaj [an Iranian pastor who was murdered in 1994] who had his apostasy charges reversed and then was murdered shortly after his release,” he said. “Pray for him, his family and everyone involved in his case.”

Source: Inside Of Iran

Iran resumes its war on bloggers

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Iran resumes its war on bloggers

Iranian blogger Sattar Beheshti said he was receiving threats that his mother would soon be wearing black if he does not shut up. A few days later, Beheshti’s mother was actually wearing black. Beheshti was arrested by what is known as the “electronic police” following his constant criticism of the regime on his blog. Beheshti, who was in his early thirties, died of torture in jail in Tehran and his black-clad mother started a long and arduous journey with the judiciary.

The mother’s mission seems almost impossible, for she needs to prove that her son was tortured to death in jail and that, therefore, the authorities are to be held accountable for his death. These same authorities sent security forces to where the 40th day commemoration of Beheshti’s death was held and beat up members of his family, including the mother.

Beheshti’s tragedy looks similar to that of the Egyptian Khaled Saeid, who was beaten to death by the Egyptian police and who is considered to be one of the reasons for the eruption of the January 25 Revolution. But the Iranian case looks more complicated because activists in Iran have been facing fierce clampdown since the protests that followed the 2009 presidential elections. A study conducted by Human Rights Watch revealed that dozens of Iranian rights activists, bloggers, journalists, and lawyers fled the country after being targeted by security and intelligence apparatuses. The number of Iranian seeking asylum has, thus, multiplied in the past two years.

Regime polices turned Iranian activists into either prisoners or refugees and the noose is tightening as the space allowed for civil society keeps shrinking. The Iranian regime specifically targets youths, particularly those well-versed in advanced means of communication. It is noteworthy that blogs by Iranian activists have exceeded 700,000, mostly created by youths.

These facts, together with the case of Beheshti and the cases of dozens others who are either jailed or exiled, reveal the insurmountable gap between the regime and the youths in Iran. The width of this gap can be detected from the fact that almost 70 percent of Iran’s population is below 30 years old.

The problem is that the Iranian regime does not deal with those facts and, instead, behaves with the same intransigence that drives it to support the Syrian regime and continues to wage war against its people.

Source: Alarabiya

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